I’m beginning an experiment to try to increase my levels of mental energy. By “mental energy”, I mean being able to focus on challenging or creative tasks without quickly becoming mentally fatigued or susceptible to distraction.
I often find myself in a vicious cycle of low mental energy causing stress and anxiousness, which then seem to lower my mental energy further. So I’d like to find reliable ways to increase my mental energy.
Over the next thirteen weeks (beginning on the 23rd of March), I’m planning to test various small (or at least smallish) changes and keep a journal of how my levels of mental energy respond.
The changes I’m planning to test include:
- improvements to my sleep schedule
- limits on looking at screens during the evening
- exercise and nutrition
- Qigong
- relaxation techniques
- the Pomodoro Technique
I’m committing to posting an update each week with notes on how my experiments are going and reflections on what I’ve learned so far. (I began an experiment like this last year, but I didn’t keep the journalling going for long enough to obtain any useful results. So I’m making this commitment in the hope that it will encourage me to stick with the experiment.)
Some disclaimers: since I’m probably going to make several changes at once, I won’t be able to draw any definitive conclusions. Also, “mental energy” is a subjective concept – I’ll be assessing it only based on how I feel from day to day. Finally, even if something seems to work for me, I don’t know how many other people would get similar results.